Grand Union Studios - The Ladbroke Grove

Signalling the northern entry into the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, the four buildings of Grand Union Centre take scale and character cues from Victorian warehouses. A six-storey, C-shaped block lines Ladbroke Grove, injecting the area with a mix of shop fronts, restaurants and 8,500 square metres of flexible business units for Workspace Group. Behind, a large communal podium courtyard – formally arranged as a series of stepped outdoor rooms, grass banks and pathways – connects the three residential blocks. Containing 130 mixed-tenure (market, shared ownership and affordable rent) homes ranging from studio flats to five-bedroom apartments, these blocks are placed at the site’s edge to maximise the size of the courtyard and reinforce the surrounding street patterns. Composed vertically with a series of brick pier bays, deep recessed openings and projecting balconies and layered horizontally with brick banding, the building’s elevations are both legible and permeable.